Cheap clean power that could run a car or an all-electric home would have a mind boggling effect on the world economy. Businesses, corporations and universities that don’t even seem to be related to oil (or coal) would fail or flounder. Eventually, there’d be a reinventing of business and a redistribution of the workforce ... sort of like after a world war. But there would be big pain for a long time.

It’d be nice to get rid of a few million service stations and a billion or so miles of tacky power lines though!